1916-01-01 10.2307/j50000718 1 18 10.2307/j50000720 17 1916 10.2307/20667400 advopeac1894 PAN AMERICANISM AS A LESSON FOR EUROPE 17-18 PAN AMERICANISM AS A LESSON FOR EUROPE By ALFRED H. FRIEDVERY much the same ideas which moved people fifty or sixty years ago and made the peace movement ap pear a sentimental dream, are re-emerging today. Sug gestions which were long ago cast among the Utopias pretentiously reappear. For instance, we hear again the song of the "United States of Europe," which Victor Hugo and Garibaldi used to sing; "arbitration courts" are recommended as a universal panacea, and, to en force their decrees, the apparently simple recipe of an international police is urged. These well-meaning dilet tantes lack the fundamental conceptions of pacifism. They do not know the difference between latent war and true peace. They fall into the most grotesque phan tasies. They think that it is merely a question of the form of agreement which has led humanity astray. They surprise us with model treaties worked out to the smallest detail. They neglect to note that it is the will which most governments, have lacked-the will to law, the will to submit to such agreements, and the far sightedness to see their value and importance. Their primitive point of view makes them miss the salient point. They offer us formulas, thinking- that humanity is bleeding because it could not discover the secret of their composition. They do not suspect that formulas are merely unimportant accessories. The most beauti ful treaty for world organization could be made in twenty-four hours if only the will were there to give it life and to put it into practice. It is characteristic for political dilettantism that it ignores the process of social evolution. It thinks that social organisms, like technical, can be made deductively. It seeks to construct a new form of international society in the same manner as one builds a machine. Such at tempts are vain and utopian. Only from living embryos can social organisms be developed, cultivated, and im proved; they cannot deliberately be created out of noth ing. The task of the social reformer is to breed, not to invent. In ignoring the slow process of evolution and attempting at once to reach the final goal which soars before them, these social reformers show their dilettant ism. Such pacifists are dangerous, for their mistakes strengthen our opponents and are likely to discredit other more serious programs. Europe must grow into a new unity just as in the past it grew into its present disorganized condition. The old historic units must be combined, not as parts of a federation, but rather as independent members of a great Union created for specific purposes. If this war, as. appears to be the case, should demon strate the impracticability of the old methods of subju gation, and if at the same time the realization grows that in Europe, with its confusion of politics and na tionalities, federation is impracticable, then the idea of such a Union will triumph, It will become clear that Europe is not going to become Cossack by conquest norrepublican by federation, and that its future lies rather on the diagonal of these forces. It is a "Co-operatice Union of Europe" (Zweclverband) which promises the only solution. It would overcome obstacles that would interfere with any other plan. In such Pan-European Union, without sacrificing the independence of the par ticipants, certain specific interests can be better secured by common action, and certain general international problems which in the past have received special treat iment in each individual case could be easily met. For the first time Europe would have a central bureau, and thus for the first time Europe will be more than a mere geographical conception. The creation of such a Pan European Union would not be without precedent. An analogous institution has existed for more than a quarter of a century in the west ern hemisphere. It is the Pan American Union, rather than the constitutional form of the United States, which might serve as a model for the new European Union. In 1889 eighteen American republics met in the first Pan-American Conference. There had been agitation for such a union ever since 1810. This Conference has met four times. The fifth conference was to have been held in November, 1914, but was postponed on account of the war. The Pan-American Union is supported by the twenty-one American republics col lectively, and is composed of the accredited diplomatic representatives in Washington of the various American republics. The United States Secretary of State pre sides at the meetings of the governing board.* The discussions and decisions of the conferences cover the whole field of the non-political relations of the Amer ican republics. They deal with the regulation and ex tension of railways and of navigation, of tariff problems, of harbor rights, of consular affairs, coinage, weights and measures, sanitation, immigration, extradition, the regulation of civil law, patents and copyrights, scientific enterprises, and the conclusion of arbitration treaties. An extensive program for the furtherance of interna tional intercourse by means of exchange-professors and scholars, by travel, and by the promotion of instruction in languages has been undertaken. Especial attention has been paid to the encouragement of trade and com merce by exchange of information, by expositions, and museums of commerce. It will occasion no surprise that Pan Americanism, despite its purely economic and social program, has re acted upon political life as well. Years of peaceful co operation between nations and their representatives strengthen confidence, engender a habit of mind which does not presuppose hostile intentions in one's neighbors, and let reason decide in critical issues. Arbitration and mediation have reached their highest development on the American continents. The peaceful co-operation ex pedites peaceful settlement of such disputes as inevi tably arise.*Translated by Lewis S. Gannet from a study "Europiische Wiederherstellung (Zurich, 1915), which will be published in English under the title "The Restoration of Europe," early in 1916.* See my "Pan-Amerika, Entwicklung, Umfang und Bedeu tung der pan-amerikanischen Bewegung (1810-1910) ." Ber lin 1910.(17) ocr-25 p-25 18 ADVOCATE OF PEACE JanuaryPan Americanism is not only a model for Europe; it is a warning as well. Before the war there was much talk of the "American menace," by which was meant eco nomic competition. This menace exists even in a wider sense. A continent so well organized will only too easily win precedence over divided Europe. If that disorgani zation which has led to war should continue after the war, the danger of the associated states of Pan-America outstripping Europe will be far greater. The war has changed the relative position of Europe and America, and that not to the advantage of Europe. Europe will lag behind America, because of its disorganization, and also because of its exhaustion. Hence a Co-operative Union must be formed, that a united Europe may meet that united continent across the ocean-not for attack, but to make further co-operation possible. The Pan European Union need not slavishly follow the American model. It should be adapted to the pecu liar conditions of Europe. Since the relations between the European states are more intimate than those be tween the American republics; since they are so much closer geographically - since their interests are more com plicated and the possibilities of conflict more abundant, the assemblies should occur at least every three years. In the meantime there should be a Pan European Bu reau, a central organ for the Union, exercising wide powers in co-operation with the permanent delegates of the various governments. This bureau should have its seat in the capital or a leading city of neutral Euro pean country. While the Hague Conferences and the Hague Bureaus would develop the legal relations of thenations, the Pan European Bureau and the Pan Euro pean Conferences of the Union would control and pro mote international relations and set the wheels of organ ization into motion. Such co-operation in the practical necessities of life would soon react upon political life. Despite the inde pendence which would be preserved to the individual states-or perhaps on account of it-the Pan European Union would not be without influence on the political conditions of the continent. Continuous co-operation would emphasize the economic and cultural interdepend ence on the old continent. In time political differences would lose some of their menacing character, and means of reconciliation would quite easily be found. A condi tion favorable to the effectiveness of the Hague machin ery would thus be created. Such a union would strengthen legal co-operation, and create that will to law, the absence of which has condemned the Hague Tribunal to impotence. A European Union is at present more desirable than a world-wide one. The European states must first be come accustomed to co-operate in their own European affairs without complicating them with world consider ations. Where broader matters are at issue, these can best be settled, as before, by world-wide conferences or through those international bureaus which already exist. Often the co-operation of the Pan American and the Pan European unions will be necessary, and it may be taken for granted that such a co-operation would finall v develop into a World Union (Weltzweckverband). ocr-26 p-26 eng 1 JANUARY, 1916 The Advocate of Peace (1894-1920) 78 Pan American Number FRIED ALFRED H. Gannet Lewis S. 1 10.2307/i20667387 research-article 21557799